Jim Whittaker, an American mountaineer, died on April 7, 2026, at age 97.
Born in Seattle on February 10, 1929, he was an American climber and mountain guide. Whittaker became the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 1, 1963, as a member of the American Mount Everest Expedition led by Norman Dyhrenfurth.
He climbed with Sherpa Nawang Gombu and was raised in Seattle, where he began climbing in his teens with his twin brother, Lou Whittaker.
Jim Whittaker, 97, American mountaineer.